The present invention relates generally to optical communication devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to an optical multiplexing and transmitting assembly.
An optical multiplexing and transmitting assembly is used for transmitting large amounts of information or data at high speeds through an optical fiber. In multiplexing, two or more signals are combined into a single bit stream by an optical multiplexer. The signals can be individually recovered from the single bit stream, transmitted through an optical fiber, by a demultiplexer.
Currently known optical fibers have core diameters of 50-100 micron for multimode optical fibers, and of less than 10 microns for single-mode optical fibers. These optical fibers are connected to the various optical elements of the optical multiplexing and transmitting assembly. The locations of optical elements need to be fixed in space with sub-micron accuracies and need to be maintained to sub-micron accuracies over time and over temperature excursions. Therefore, there is a need for an optical multiplexing and transmitting assembly that has optical elements fixed at precise locations with sub-micron accuracy, to effectively transmit information or data through optical fibers.